HUALIEN: Premier Cho Jung-tai called for an investigation into the reasons behind the evacuation orders, and residents of a town in eastern Taiwan where flooding from a powerful typhoon killed 14 people fled to shelters on Wednesday out of dread of more tragedy.
Sub-tropical Taiwan, which is regularly struck by typhoons, typically has a well-functioning catastrophe strategy that prevents mass casualties by swiftly evacuating people from areas of possible danger.
However, many locals in Guangfu, a flooded village amid the tourist-heavy Hualien beauty area, claimed there was not enough notice when the lake overflowed on Tuesday due to Super Typhoon Ragasa’s intense rainfall.
Finding the 129 people who were still missing was the top priority, according to Cho, but there were still unanswered questions. After he spoke, the number increased to 152.